T-ball

T-ball is going well. He's not the greatest, but he's not the worst either. He has a very short attention span and can not focus on a whole practice. I think he's pretty much over it within 15 minutes. Anyway, he gets excited to going to the "dugout" and playing t-ball. This particular day he had been at work with me all day long and then had t-ball practice. I was most proud of him for his awesome behavior at work, but this picture pretty much sums it up...he was exhausted!!! Yeah, welcome to my world kid.

Nail Polish Disaster

Colton was home with me for Spring Break this week. I tried to plan fun things for us to do each day even if we just went to the park or to Chick-F-lia. Tuesday, I was outside with him and painted my nails...blue...don't ask why blue. Anyway, he had eyed the nail polish so I made sure to put it up as soon as I was done using it. He followed me into the bathroom and watched me put it up on a higher shelf on in the bathroom cabinet. Then while I was folding laundry, I noticed he had gotten the nail polish and had painted his face with it. Fantastic. This is just a sample of what it looked like after I had already removed a big chunk of it. And of course, a picture from my phone never turns out well anyway.

Love this!!!

RIP Hunter

I have had my sweet Beagle since I was in high school. I got him from a former boyfriend and we named him Hunter. He was a mess. He would shit in the floor and look at you while he did it- completely on purpose and there was not a thing wrong with him except for he was a pain in the ass some times.
We called him a "dumpster diver" because he was always in the trash- daily. In his younger days he was a digger and would climb, dig out, or open the glass front door and escape. He always came back and was only gone for a short time. Eventually we stopped chasing after him and would let him wonder and in an hour he would be scratching at the front door, or would have gone back to the backyard. He had been hit by a car, shot in the hind with a pellet gun, almost eaten by a Saint Bernard on one of our walks, got into a fight *and won* with a Rottweiler and was the toughest dog I'd ever meet. I felt safe with him at home when Brian was hunting and knew that our house and my family were safe with him. I loved him even though he used to piss me off on a daily basis. He had a good life. His treasures from the trash can in his crate, he had beds in several rooms though out the house and I would let him get on the couch with me if no one was looking.
He was there when I graduated high school, went to college, met Brian, bought my first house, got married, sold my first house, bought our second house, had a baby and started a family.
I always expected to find him curled up in his crate on in one of his beds dead, curled up with some trash treasures or something.
He didn't have anything wrong with him other than a few things that we chalked up to old age, and lets face it, he was old! After chasing him out of the trash on the morning of February 24th, I heard some noises at lunch time. Thinking he was getting a little afternoon snack, I yelled from the back of the house at him to get out of the trash. It didn't stop. I walked into the living room to find him having a seizure. After giving it some time to stop, he continued to get worse and worse. I called a friend, I called Brian, I called the Vet. Brian came home and when he saw Hunter (now in the backyard since I didn't want him to get hurt on anything in the house. Unfortunately  the other dog thought he was playing and had knocked him into the flower bed and he seized his way into a rose bush. See, the story just couldn't get any worse) he said he knew then that Hunter wasn't going to make it. The Vet said that since he had been seizing for 45 minutes at that point (they were at lunch) the vet was at lunch to take him to the emergency clinic. He was rushed to ICU and given Valium along with some seizure meds and nothing helped...at all. They came in and asked if we wanted to put him down. I asked if it was the right thing to do and they said "Yes. It's time. It is the right thing to do." They asked if we wanted to be with him while they put him to sleep, and although Hunter deserved for me to be back there with him, I just couldn't do it. He had gone blind in the truck ride over anyway and I'm pretty sure he was already gone and wouldn't have know if I was back or not. They came back in collected our money, said how sorry they were, and that he was gone now.
We got a sympathy card from the clinic, our vet, and then last night in the mail it came. The notice that Hunter had been cremated and his ashes were scattered. It made it official and he's gone for sure now.
Today is also the 1 year anniversary of my grandmother passing so I imagine he is probably cuddled up with her and she is petting him. Hopefully he has lots of friends and good trash to dig though.
I had gone last week to talk to our vet. Hunter died from an undiagnosed brain tumor. To our knowledge he never suffered until that seizure. There was nothing we could have done and it was just his time. I was so lonely that weekend, but am much better now. The hardest part has been explaining it to Colton. Colton and Hunter were BFF's and he knows, but he fully doesn't get it. He has dreams about Hunter and wants to know why we didn't give Hunter medicine if he was sick.

We have no idea how he got the hanger around his neck, but he was always into something

Hunter was even a Rangers Fan!

Brian, Colton, and Hunter asleep

This was at our very first house, probably taken 7 or so years ago

This was moving day when we moved from Mansfield to Arlington. Hunter wasn't having anything to do with it!

He also wasn't thrilled with all the snow we got 2 years ago. 

Cowboy Boots

Colton just loves his cowboy boots. We buy him a pair every Christmas and he wears those things out. Now that his feet have stopped growing so quickly, he's able to wear them a little longer. He insists on wearing them with everything...including shorts.

Park Days

It's been pretty nice outside lately so I've been taking Colton to the park after school. We have been going to Veteran's Park which is close to our house and is a super nice park. We play on the playground and then walk around the park through some nature trails. The park is pretty large and he is totally loving getting out and being active. It's so good for the both of us. By the time we get home, Brian is usually pulling in the driveway and then we eat dinner. It's really, really been nice.

Here is Colton checking out a stream that runs through one of the paths we were on.

Crockpot Meals

I'm loving pinterest and all the wonderful crockpot meals I've found. Some good, some not so good. I tried this one out recently.
1 can Rotel
1 can corn
1 can drained and rinsed black beans
1 brick cream cheese
2 pounds of chicken (I switched it up the next week and made this using ground beef and it was delish!) mix it up every so often and cook on low for 8 hours.
Shred the chicken and voila!

We put these on tostada's and burritos and had a yummy dinner. I tossed in some spices because this by itself was a little bland for my tastebuds. When I used the ground beef, I just seasoned my beef with taco seasoning and then tossed it in the crockpot before I picked Colton up from school and by the time we got home it was ready to eat.